Generally, the present invention is directed toward a new and improved apparatus and method for making an ice product of the so-called "flake" or "chip" type commonly used for cooling beverages and the like, and toward a new and improved method of making such an apparatus. More specifically, the present invention is directed toward an apparatus and method for making an ice product of the above-mentioned type having improved ice quality, storage, appearance, and dispensing and displacement characteristics, as compared to various types or prior art flake-type or chip-type ice products. Additionally, the present invention is directed toward and ice making machine or system for producing such high-quality ice products, which incorporates a new and improved combination evaporator and ice-forming assembly, and toward a method of making such assembly.
Prior ice making machines for producing flake or chip ice have typically included vertically-extending rotatable augers that scrape ice crystals from tubular freezing cylinders disposed about the periphery of the augers. The augers in such prior devices typically urge the scraped ice in the form of a slush through open ends of the freezing cylinders, or perhaps through a die or the like in order to form the flake or chip ice product. Other ice making devices include freezing cylinders and moveable external blades for scraping ice crystals from the outside surface of the freezing cylinders. One example of an ice making machine employing one of the above-described vertical freezer cylinders is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,921,415. Such ice making machines of the type employing vertical freezing cylinders have frequently been overly complex and expensive to manufacture and maintain, and have also typically been quite large and bulky, therefore taking up a great amount of space in their ultimate installations. In addition, such prior ice making machines have frequently been uable to produce a high quality flake or chip ice product having a low percentage of unfrozen water interspersed between the ice particles.
Prior departures from the above-described vertical cylinder-type ice making machines have employed a generally horizontally-extending freezer surface with a rotatable element for scraping ice from the freezer surface. Examples of such prior horizontal-type ice making machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 28,924 and in German Utility Model No. PA769,337. Such prior horizontal-type ice making machines, however, have not fully overcome the above-discussed disadvantages of the vertical cylinder ice making machines. The need has therefore arisen for an apparatus and method for making chip or flake ice that is compact in size, inexpensive to manufacture and operate, and capable of producing a high-quality ice product.
An ice making apparatus according to the present invention includes a refrigeration system and a combination evaporator and ice-forming assembly preferably comprising a generally horizontal freezer plate with a freezer surface thereon adapted for receiving ice make-up water deposited thereon, evaporator means for cooling the freezer surface in order to form a thin layer of substantially hard-frozen ice thereon, and a rotatable ice breaker disposed adjacent the freezer surface with blade means thereon. Preferably, at least the freezer plate and the evaporator means are integrally encased and molded in a monolithic freezer member composed of a molded polymeric material, with the freezer surface exposed for forming the ice layer thereon. The ice breaker is also preferably fabricated of a cast material, or more preferably a molded polymeric material, and therefore requires little or no matching during its formation and fabrication.
An edge portion of the blade means is located in close proximity with the freezer surface for forcibly fracturing the substantially hard-frozen ice layer into formed ice particles as the ice breaker is rotated. The preferred blade-like member extends along a generally spiral-shaped path from a radially inward portion of the ice breaker to a radially peripheral portion thereof and urges the fractured ice particles in a radially outward direction to be discharged from between the ice breaker and the freezer surface. The peripheral portion of the ice breaker is preferably disposed closely adjacent to, but radially spaced from, an upstanding peripheral skirt portion of the freezer member in order to compress quantities of the ice particles therebetween as they are discharged, thereby compressingly removing unfrozen water therefrom. The high quality ice particles are then preferably deposited into an enclosure or other receptacle for storage and dispensing.
Because the ice breaker fractures the brittle, substantially hard-frozen ice layer on the freezer surface into formed, substantially hard-frozen ice particles, the ice making apparatus according to the present invention generally requires less driving torque to rotate its ice breaker than those of the prior art and therefore requires less energy to operate.
It is accordingly a general object of the present invention to provide a new and improved ice making machine or system.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method of making the above-mentioned ice making machine.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method of making flake-type or chip-type ice products.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved ice making machine that has fewer moving parts than comparable prior ice making machines, that will be more dependable in operation, inexpensive to manufacture and maintain, that requires a minimum amount of machining operations, and that can be easily serviced.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved ice making machine having reduced energy requirements by way of a new method of fabricating the combination evaporator and ice forming assembly wherein portions of the assembly are formed by injection molding, for example, from a moldable polymeric material such as plastic, and because the ice is fractured in a brittle hard-frozen state rather than being shaved in a less fully frozen state as in the prior art.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a uniform distribution of water on the ice-forming or freezer surface of an ice making machine according to the invention.
Additional objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.